Two quakes shake southern Asia

HONG KONG, Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Two moderate earthquakes shook the sea off Southeast Asia Wednesday but caused no damage, the Hong Kong Observatory reported.

Both tremors had near identical epicenters, 135 miles south-southwest of Kaohsiung City, China's state Xinhua news agency reported.

The first morning quake measured 5.0 on the open-ended Richter scale, while the second in the afternoon was stronger at 5.6, the observatory said.

The U.S. Geological survey said the first quake was centered 4.8 miles under the Earth's surface.

After the first event, Japanese media reported the seismic activity was possibly a follow-up to North Korea's underground weapons test Monday but South Korean geologists refuted the claim, saying the readings were from a natural geological event.